Sustainability

Our Global Sustainability Initiative  |  Legal Sector Alliance
Our targets and performance  |  Past Events 
What our community partners say  |  What our people say
Our environmental policy statement

DLA Piper and the environment

In January 2007, DLA Piper introduced a Global Sustainability Initiative to affirm our commitment to reducing our environmental impact and to ensuring that we conduct our business in a responsible manner.

Through our Initiative and the sustained commitment of our people, we will reduce our operational environmental impact in four key areas - energy, waste, travel and procurement.

The three key features of our Sustainability Initiative are:

• Certification of compliance to ISO 14001:2004, a globally accepted standard for environmental management that will measure our commitment to the environment.
• Reduction of greenhouse emissions through more efficient business travel and the purchase of carbon offsets for certain unavoidable travel.
• Setting of carbon emissions reduction targets in the impact areas of energy, waste, travel and procurement; and the implementation of a comprehensive set of measures designed to achieve these targets.

Our approach will be a 'living strategy', which will change and adapt as we respond to the demands and challenges of creating a more sustainable business.

Our Global Sustainability Initiative

DLA Piper's Sustainability Initiative is an affirmation of our long-term commitment to environmental welfare. By actively taking steps to reduce the negative impact of our business operations on the environment, we underscore our values and respond to an obligation we have to future generations.

As well as the key tenets listed above, our sustainability efforts will include reducing paper consumption, eliminating unnecessary travel, enhancing recycling programmes and switching off unused PCs and lights. These and other meaningful measures will not only reduce our adverse environmental impacts, they will also reduce our energy usage, produce significant cost savings and improve operational efficiency.

We are hopeful that the positive steps we are taking will educate and influence the actions of all our people toward the environment, thereby magnifying the benefits of the Sustainability Initiative beyond the office and into the homes of thousands of individuals around the world.

Our targets and performance

As part of this Initiative, we have set a range of targets to guide us on the path towards sustainability. We will regularly measure our progress against these targets, and will set new and more challenging targets annually. These targets apply to the whole of DLA Piper's global operations consisting of 64 offices in 25 countries and over 8,000 employees.

Past Events

Business Summit on Climate Change

DLA Piper was the proud sponsor of the Business Summit on Climate Change hosted by HRH The Prince of Wales on 1 May 2007. The Summit aimed to bring together over a thousand top businesses to exchange information, think creatively and identify steps to reduce the carbon footprint of their own business as well as that of their suppliers and customers. The business leaders attending the Summit considered how companies impact on climate change, discussed practical solutions supported by sustainability experts and shared their responses to the issue.

Global Environment Week at DLA Piper

From 29 January to 2 February, DLA Piper's 7,000-plus employees celebrated the launch of our Sustainability Initiative during the 'Global Environment Week' across all of our offices. This week-long event consisted of a range of activities which stimulated and informed our people about the implementation of the Sustainability Initiative - both in the office, and at home.

The Sheffield 'Cooling the Planet' Conference

On 7 February 2007, DLA Piper held a 'Cooling the Planet' conference in Sheffield, England, which featured former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and Senator George Mitchell as keynote speakers.

DLA Piper is pleased that, as a result of the 'Cooling the Planet' conference, a number of groups in and around Sheffield were inspired to host parallel events around the time of the conference.

Additionally, Sheffield City Council has decided that every year it will dedicate a week in February to promote climate change activities in the city under the heading 'Sheffield is my Planet.'

What our community partners say

"I am enormously grateful to you and our partners in the Carbon Trust and Opinion Leader Research, and I am looking forward very much indeed to 1st May which I hope will make a real difference to the way in which companies across England tackle climate change."

- His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales, Business in the Community

"The support is fantastic and will go a long way towards achieving our aim of creating a well-used, sustainable community service."

- Rich Veitch, Member, Leeds Organic Growers

What our people say

"The goal of the Sustainability Initiative is to create a culture of environmental responsibility across all our offices. We are extending our commitment beyond basic environmental compliance in order to significantly reduce, not just offset, our negative impact on the world's ecosystems."

- Senator George Mitchell, Chairman of the Board

Our environmental policy statement

You can download a pdf copy of our environmental and health & safety policy statements by clicking the here.